Clothes clip



p 11, 1956 M. ALMER 2,762,101

CLOTHES CLIP Filed Aug. 4, 1953 l 7 H WM a 1' 9/ 7 5 95 g i 14 INVENTOR millon/ dlmer United States Patent CLOTHES CLIP Milton Almer, Superior, Wis.

Application August 4, 1953, Serial No. 372,271

2 Claims. (Cl. 24-137) This invention relates to new and useful improvements in clothespins, and it has more specifically for its object to provide positive retention of clothes or other articles suspended thereby on clotheslines for drying, as well as other uses and advantages which will present themselves.

An object of the present invention is to provide a clothespin of simple construction and pleasing appearance which can be manufactured and assembled very economically. Because of this, it is felt that the manufacture and sale of this invention will meet with instant and popular demand from housewives and the general public.

With the above and other objects in view, this invention consists of the novel features of construction, combination and arrangement of parts, hereinafter fully ascribed, claimed and illustrated in the accompany ng drawing forming part of this specification, and in wh ch similar characters of reference indicate correspondmg parts in all views, and in which:

In the accompanying drawing, wherein an illustrative embodiment of the invention is disclosed, Fig. 1 is a top plan view of a clothes clip constructed according to the invention; Fig. 2 is a view of the C-shaped spring for holding the jaws of the clip together; Fig. 3 is a side elevational view of the clip; Fig. 4 is a plan view of the blank from which the spring is formed; Fig. 5 is a v1ew looking at the inner face of one of the jaws, and Fig. 6 is a sectional view, taken substantially on the line 6-6 of Fig. 5, looking in the direction of the arrows.

The improved clothes clip includes a pair of similar co-operating jaws between which the line and clothing are gripped, each of the jaws being provided with a lineengaging groove. The jaws are respectively indicated at 1 and 2 and each jaw includes a shank or finger-piece 3, a cross-bar 4 and the forwardly-projecting, spaced gripping fingers 5. The several parts 3, 4 and 5 of each jaw are formed integrally, of wood, plastic, noncorrosive metal or other suitable material. Extending across each jaw, and located in the cross-bar 4 thereof is a groove or shallow, elongated recess 6. The groove 6 on one of the jaws faces that in the other jaw, so that when the two jaws are together in operative relationship, the clothesline on which the clothes clip is placed, will be disposed in the grooves.

The two jaws 1 and 2 are held together, with the ends of their fingers 5 normally maintained in gripping or closed position, by means of a suitable C-shaped spring indicated at 7. The blank from which the spring is formed is disclosed in Fig. 4, and the same is preferably composed of thin, springy metal, reinforced by the ribs disclosed at 8. The spring is formed with the two parallel, spaced slots indicated at 9 and 10 and when the spring is formed into its final C-shape, as disclosed in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, the shanks or fingerpieces 3 of the jaws project through the slots, and the ends 14 and 15 of the 2,762,101 Patented Sept. 11, 1956 spring exert pressure on the cross-bars of the jaws, thus urging the fingers 5 thereof together with considerable pressure. It will be noted that the inner side of each of the shanks or finger-pieces 3 is bevelled as shown at 12 to enable the jaws to be opened to a maximum extent when inserting the clothes and line betwen them. A hole or aperture indicated at 13 is provided in each of the shanks 3 to enable the clip to be suspended from a hook, nail or other projection, if desired.

From the foregoing, the operation of the improved clothes clip will be readily understood. The same is readily fitted over a line by applying finger pressure on the two shanks 3 to thereby spread the jaws apart against the pressure of the spring 7. While the jaws are held in their open position, the clip is applied to the line and over the parts of the clothes in contact therewith. The two spaced fingers on each of the jaws enables parts of two adjacent articles of clothing on a line to be gripped in side-by-side relationship and without overlap, thus facilitating drying of the parts of the clothing confined under the clip.

While I have herein shown and described a single embodiment of the invention, it is obvious that the same is not to be restricted thereto, but is broad enough to cover a all structures coming within the scope of the annexed claims.

What I claim is:

1. A clothes clip for engagement with a clothesline comprising, a pair of similarly-shaped gripping jaws, each jaw including a cross bar formed in its inner surface with a line-receiving groove, the cross bar being provided at each of its opposite ends with an integral, forwardly-extending finger projecting forwardly of the line-receiving groove, the fingers of each jaw being '.spaced apart, each jaw being provided at the rear of the cross bar with a rearwardly-extending integral shank located centrally of the jaw and behind and intermediate of the fingers, a C-shaped spring having spaced, elongated apertures through which the respective shanks on the jaws extend, the spring having its edges operative against the cross bars of the two jaws and adjacent to the forward edges of said cross bars to thereby resiliently urge the fingers on the respective jaws into gripping contact.

2. A clothes clip adapted for engagement with a clothes line comprising, a pair of co-operating jaws of similar shape and size, each jaw having a cross bar portion provided in its inner face with a longitudinally-extending, line-receiving groove, each jaw being provided centrally of its cross-bar portion with a rearwardly-extending finger-piece, a plurality of integral, forwardly-extending, spaced apart fingers formed on and extending from the cross-bar portion, said fingers extending forwardly of the line-receiving grooves, a C-shaped spring having spaced, elongated slots through which the finger-pieces of the two jaws extend, the edges of the spring being operative against the cross-bars of the jaws to thereby hold the forward portions of the fingers thereon into contact under the resilient pressure of the spring.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 175,478 Marshall Mar. 28, 1876 363,533 Munger May 24, 1887 437,877 Truax Oct. 7, 1890 631,754 Sanders Aug. 22, 1899 1,185,956 Supplee June 6, 1916 1,258,181 Brown Mar. 5, 1918 2,454,857 Bish Nov. 30, 1948 

